Rossi: “We are quite worried for the race”

0.017s separated Valentino Rossi from the front row in Barcelona, but ‘The Doctor’ fears the gab will grow significantly on Sunday.

Sunday’s Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya will see Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) line up in the middle of the second row. ‘The Doctor’ put in a 1’44.324, only 0.002s slower than fourth place Hector Barbera (Avintia Racing) and 0.017s away from a front row. Staying with the likes of Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) during the race will be difficult, Rossi’s Yamaha not working as well around the new tighter layout of the track.

"It’s not a voluntary decision, with the medium option after seven or eight laps it’s finished"

Tyres present a major issue for Rossi as well, perhaps even more so than the new layout. With the medium option having a relatively short life on the M1, both Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) look set to use the harder option. While it will last the distance, neither rider is yet able to extract the full potential from the tyre and Rossi feels his race pace will not be enough.

Valentino Rossi, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP, Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya

Valentino Rossi: “In the end, the qualifying was not so bad. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to make the perfect lap, I made a few mistakes and will start from the second row, from fifth position, that is OK. We need to work, we are quite worried for the race. With this new layout we suffer a lot and especially because we need to use the hard front, but unfortunately we are not able to use it in the right way, we are very slow and in terms of pace we are quite far from the top guys. I think that it will be hard, but we have time and have some hours to think and we hope we can change the situation for tomorrow. It’s not a voluntary decision, with the medium option after seven or eight laps it’s finished, so we need to use the hard tyre, but try to use it in a better way.”